Spotlight on Libertarians: Jeff Hewitt, Mayor of Calimesa, California

Each week, I plan on picking a random Libertarian who currently holds an elected office to highlight in a new series called Spotlight on Libertarians. I’ve been wanting to do something like this to respond to Dan Savage’s answer to one of his callers about third parties.

Savage claims (about the Green party) “If you’re interested in building a third party, a viable third party, you don’t start with president. You don’t start by running someone for f***ing president.

Where are the Green Party candidates for city councils? For county councils? For state legislatures? For state assessor? For state insurance commissioner? For governor? For fucking dogcatcher? I would be SO willing to vote for Green Party candidates who are starting at the bottom, grassroots, bottom up, building a third party, a viable third party.”

So, in order to show that Libertarians are making ground in local elections, I’m going to spread the victories of party members.

This week, I’ve decided to focus on the Mayor of Calimesa, California, Jeff Hewitt.

Hewitt was elected as mayor in 2013 after serving as a City Council member for three years. After the election Mayor Hewitt stated “I’m looking forward to helping guide Calimesa through challenging, yet exciting times, holding down the cost of living while attracting businesses in a prosperous way.”

His political career started in 2004 when he was asked to become a part of the planning commission. Hewitt had been running his business digging pools with his bobcat, which he claims has given him better insight into the lives of the taxpayers. Eventually, he worked his way to become the chairman of the planning commission, which lead the way for his city council election.

The Calimesa mayor put his name in the 2014 special election for the District 23 State Senate seat. The Libertarian ran on opposition the California governor’s proposal to fund a high-speed railway claiming “If I want a high speed thrill I’ll go to Magic Mountain. There is no reason for this. The governor actually compared this to the transcontinental railroad and I’d like to call him out on this. It will cost $68 billion and that’s ridiculous. Put that money back to the people and use the money on things like airports, highways and light rails.”

Lessening regulations on small businesses was also a part of his platform, stating in response to a public question “They need to be left alone. I shudder to think what our kids or grandkids will have to do to open their own business. It’s so expensive for a mom and pop to run a company. There are too many regulations and fees put upon them.”

In 2016, Hewitt ran for the 42nd district of California’s State Assembly seat, gaining slightly under 8% of the vote. The Libertarian ran on a platform of school vouchers, reducing business taxes, personal income taxes and sales taxes, and starting a guest worker program. Hewitt also urged voters to elect more libertarians because “we bring the two [major parties] together on the things that everyone agrees on.

Author: Luke Henderson

Since joining the Libertarian Party in 2016 (after discovering Gary Johnson as a disaffected Bernie Sanders supporter), Luke Henderson has been active in the liberty movement through journalism, and political activism.
At the beginning of 2017, Luke had his first piece of writing published by Being Libertarian and quickly became a contributor to the libertarian news site, The Libertarian Vindicator. Through the Vindicator, Luke discovered his passion for addressing critics of the philosophy and bringing together different factions of liberty lovers which compelled him to become an editor for The Libertarian Coalition, a forum dedicated to an open-minded discussion of libertarian ideas from all walks.
After many guest contributions to Being Libertarian, Luke was asked to join the website as a contributor, where he writes his column Scoring For Liberty, which discusses sports, politics, and economics from a libertarian lens, and his Educator series that seeks to strengthen libertarian’s understanding of educational techniques and policy to better arguments against public education.
Luke is one of the District 1 Executive Committeemen for the Missouri Libertarian party, and the founder of the Missouri Chapter of the Libertarian Positivity Caucus. Outside of politics, Luke is a paraprofessional for the Special School District of St. Louis, a musician, composer, and a loving husband and father.
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